The Shroud of Turin

The Shroud of Turin is believed by many to have been used to inter
Jesus Christ. It is a cloth made of linen, is essentially rectangular
(4.3 by 1.1 meter) and bears the front and back images of a human
body. The linen cloth is a fine rare weave: a 3-1 herringbone. Its
average thickness is less than a quarter of a millimeter, around 0.23 mm, and
its total weight is about one kilogram.

It is named Shroud of Turin because it is kept in the city of Turin
in the North of Italy, not very far from France. The Shroud is
securely stored in the Cathedral of Turin, in a protective sealed
case, fully unrolled on a flat surface. The case is filled with an
inactive gas (i.e., argon) to reduce oxidation of the linen of the
Shroud. The Shroud itself is not visible to visitors although an
enlarge copy of the image of the face of the Shroud can be seen near
the protective case.

The Turin Cathedral,
and the Royal Chapel, located in the back of the Cathedral. The Chapel
was damaged by fire in 1997 and it is still being restored. We can see
the reconstruction of the dome of the chapel in progress. The Shroud
of Turin is normally kept in the Chapel but has been moved in the Cathedral
during its restoration.

The Shroud
is shown only on rare occasions. The four last expositions were in
1998 (celebrating the 100 years anniversary of the first photography
of the Shroud), 2000 (the new millennium), in the Spring of 2010, and
from April 19 to June 24, 2015. The last 17 years is the most active
period of expositions over the last three centuries. The next
exposition has not been announced, but it could be in 2025.

The image on the Shroud is physically unique. It is formed by a
very thin layer of colored linen fibrils from the threads of
the Shroud. The photomicrographs that were taken in 1978, which are
accessible from this web site on Shroud Scope, present close-ups of
the colored fibrils (See photomicrograph
on Shroud Scope). What process caused this color to appear on the fibrils
is unknown. Although many have proposed that the color comes
from some paint, no compelling demonstration of the presence of paint has
ever been given. For example, it is unknown how paint could has been applied on only
the top fibrils of the threads.

The image of the Shroud encoded the body 3D data. That is, the
intensity of the color of the fibrils is proportional to the distance
from the body to the Shroud. This observation was made at least a
century ago by Yves Delage. This proportional relation can be observed
more easily from a photographic negative of the Shroud. This
observation was recognized in 1898 from the first photography done by
Secondo Pia. The 1931 photography of Giuseppe Enrie confirmed this
observation. The observation that some body-cloth distance appear to
be encoded in the image was alluded more than two centuries ago in the
second manuscript of MS 826 kept at the Bibliothèque municipale de
Besançon when comparing the shroud of Besançon and the Shroud of
Turin.

The Shroud is also stained with what appears to be blood. The
bloodstains correspond to the narative of the gospels but the expected
wounds in the palms of the hands are actually near the wrists. Major
bloodstains are also visible from the right-side of the torso and the
feet.

In 1988, a radiocarbon dating of the cloth was done with a
resulting date between 1260 and 1390, with a confidence factor of 95%.
It was based on a small sample taken near a corner of the Shroud (See
sample
of radiocarbon dating on the Shroud ). Naturally, if this dating
were correct, the Shroud would not be authentic. But the dating has
been critized for various reasons. For example, the results of the
three laboratories have a high dregree of variance. Another major
critic was the selection of the location of the radiocarbon dating
sample near an area that was heavily stained by centuries of
manipulation.

The origin of the Shroud is unclear. Although we know that the
Shroud emerges from Lirey, France, around 1355, its first owners were
not very clear about its provenance. The son of Geoffroy de Charny,
wrote that his father obtained it as a gift. The granddaughter
Marguerite de Charny stated in court that his grandfather acquired the
Shroud. A medaillon depicting the Shroud with its double image was
found in the Seine River in 1855. It bears the coat of arms of
Geoffroy de Charny and his second wife Jeanne de Vergy. Other
historical documents show that Geoffroy de Charny, a knight and
counselor to king Philip VI of France, had acquired the Shroud.

A document written around 1525, most probably by the dean of the
Church of Lirey, states that Geoffroy de Charny obtained the Shroud
from king Philip VI. This gift was related to the tentative by
Geoffroy de Charny to regain the city of Calais. The document, though,
likely dates the events of the gift incorrectly but probably not by
more than a few years. Since Louis IX, the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris
housed one of the most famous relics of Christ, among them the Crown
of Thorns and a large piece of the cross. These relics came from
Constantinople. Philip VI could have taken the Shroud from one of
these relics but without realizing that an image was on the cloth.

I invite the reader to read a short paper written by the professional
photographer Aldo Guerreschi at
The Turin Shroud: from
the photo to the three-dimensional. In this paper, Aldo presents a personal
experience of examining the Turin Shroud after the 1997 fire. I think
that this personal introduction to the Shroud will give you a
sense of the exceptional image inscribed on it. I quote
from this paper:

While photography has the advantage of fixing an image in time and of
concentrating it so that whichever angle you look at it from it
remains the same, with the Shroud itself that is not the case.

Moving
around that table from a certain angle I saw this image so faded as if
to practically disappear, while from others it seemed as if the figure
were almost outside the sheet; it was, I repeat, an incredible
emotion. At that moment I knew that this image was unique.

Let me tell you more.

I asked permission to photograph some details of the
face. As I said previously, I thought I knew it well.. I approached
the face placing my camera at a distance of about 20 - 30 cm, aimed
the camera at the face and saw ... nothing in the viewfinder;
"and yet" I said " I know it by heart." I had to beg my friend to
point to the position of the eye, because from a distance of 30 cm I
could not see it. I could only see it as I moved away from it. So it
is a barely perceptible image, one which escapes you, which leaves you
perplexed.

I am convinced that if people could see it from close up
they would not only feel great emotion, but would also realize the
real consistency of this image, which would dispel the many doubts
surrounding the authenticity of this sheet which unquestionably
enshrouded a corpse, and of this there is absolutely no doubt.